With pitchers and catchers scheduled to report in just two days, rather than another retro recap of a regular season game, I thought I'd share with you a recap of one memorable spring training game from 2004 -- a season we entered with quite a bit of optimism after the near-miss of 2003 and the acquisitions of players like Derrek Lee and Greg Maddux in the offseason.
The hero of the game in question -- indeed, the hero of that Cub camp -- was Scott McClain, who had the spring training of his (or almost anyone's) life: 16-for-48 with five doubles, six home runs and 16 RBI. For that, he got released at the end of camp, and didn't play at all during the 2004 season. The Cubs brought him back to spring camp in 2005; he played that year at Iowa, hitting .291/.358/.577 with 30 HR and 93 RBI. For that, he got a September callup in which he went 2-for-14.
McClain had some talent, but was 33 by the time he had that big year in Triple-A. Bryan LaHair, who has had a similar career track, is somewhat younger at 29. Maybe he'll do this year what McClain couldn't. The photo on this post was taken during that year's spring (although not during the game that's recapped here -- the game I'm linking to was a night game). You can tell right away it's a spring photo by the "71" on his back.
This site did not begin until 2005, but some time ago I was able to import my baseball-related posts from my old blog into the database here. Hope you enjoy this recap of the Cubs' 1-0 win over the Athletics on March 22, 2004. (Note: the link to the Yahoo recap to which I linked in that post is no longer active.)
After having a terrible 2000 season, the Cubs got off to a good start in 2001 and by late May were in first place. This run to the top was highlighted by a 12-game winning streak from May 19 through June 2; that still stands as the team's longest winning streak since their last pennant. In fact, the Cubs have won 10 or more in a row only four times since 1945 -- 10 straight in 1953 and 1998, 11 in a row in 1970 and the 2001 12-game streak.
They extended the lead to as many as six games in June, and after a 16-10 July had a 4½ game lead in the NL Central going into August. Hopes were high for another unexpected playoff spot.
On August 7, the Cubs began a homestand with a Tuesday night matchup with the Colorado Rockies. (For amusement, check out who led off for the Rockies that night.)
They won the game. But that wasn't the biggest story of the night.
The 1995 season started late, due to the lateness of the settlement after the 1994 labor stoppage. MLB set a 144-game schedule, the shortest in the expansion era.
The Cubs, who had been pretty bad in 1994, were a little better in 1995. After a good start had them in first place in early June at 22-13, they went 16-30 and were five games under .500 at what would be the midpoint of a normal season, 38-43. A 23-16 run put them back over the .500 mark in early September at 61-59, but that didn't seem as if it would be enough...
... until the last week of the season, when they started winning. And winning. And winning. They won seven in a row and needed some help, but went into the season's final weekend with a shot at the first-ever wild card. The fourth win in the streak was this game against the Cardinals that was a near no-hitter by Frank Castillo, broken up with two out in the ninth by a triple by Bernard Gilkey.
And then they went for that eighth straight win.
Despite the Cubs' loss in the NLCS to the Giants, you probably (if you're old enough) remember the 1989 season fondly. Greg Maddux exploded on the scene with a huge year at age 23; Mark Grace established himself as one of the better first basemen in the league; the Cubs had two other solid starting pitchers in Rick Sutcliffe and Mike Bielecki, and Ryne Sandberg hit 30 home runs for the first time in his career.
Combine that with the "pitching like his hair is on fire" closer Mitch Williams, and the Cubs surprised everyone by playing consistently early, then taking over first place on August 5 with a win at Pittsburgh.
The context of the game in this recap is important. Though the Cubs were still in first place entering this day, it was by a thread; a lead that had been 2½ games just a week earlier had slipped to just half a game over the Cardinals after the Cubs blew a 7-1 lead entering the fifth inning the day before, September 8, and it wasn't even clear they'd play on the 9th, as it had been raining most of the morning.
What followed was one of the most memorable games of that season.
The 1998 season was remarkable for many reasons -- not the least of which was the Cubs' first playoff season in nine years, and the first (and so far, only) wild card postseason spot won by the Cubs.
For the last 45 days of the season, no more than one game separated the first- and second-place teams in the NL wild card race -- the Cubs, Mets, and in the final week, the Giants, who the Cubs wound up playing in the memorable tiebreaker game at Wrigley Field.
This game was part of an amazing weekend series with the Brewers, who were in their first year as a NL team. The Cubs won two of three, but both teams scored 10 or more runs in all three games. Orlando Merced, pictured here, played a key role in this game. Why is this photo of him in a Twins uniform?
Primarily because Merced's Cubs career was very brief. The Twins sent him to the Red Sox in a July 31 deadline deal that year (along with Greg Swindell), but Boston released him on September 1. Four days later he was a Cub; he played in just 12 games and had only 10 at-bats. One of them was particularly important.
Let's set the BCB Wayback Machine even farther back than yesterday.
1917 wasn't a great year for the Cubs; in fact, it was their third straight losing season, after having been dominant in the National League with four pennants, two World Series titles and 12 winning years in a row from 1903-1914.
Think about that for a while. Our hope is that new management can lead the Cubs to something like that over the next 12 seasons.
Anyway, the somewhat surprising pennant of 1918 was still a year away, and Cubs fans were still getting used to new ownership under Lucky Charlie Weeghman and the ballpark he purchased from the defunct Federal League Chicago Whales and named it after himself. It was still a few years away from being dubbed "Cubs Park" after Weeghman was forced out and it wouldn't be called "Wrigley Field" until 1926. Nevertheless, in the photo above you can clearly see at least one building that still stands on Sheffield Avenue today, almost 95 years after this photo was taken.
And on May 2, 1917, something happened there that had never happened in baseball before -- and hasn't since.
Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler is one of the lesser known Hall of Famers. The nickname is a play on the first syllable of his last name (pronounced "Cuy-cuy", not "kee-kee"). Acquired by the Cubs in a lopsided deal after the 1927 deal from the Pirates (largely because he and his manager Donie Bush did not get along), he dominated the National League through 1932, until injuries curtailed his production from 1933 and on. He was on only one All-Star team, but that's because there wasn't an All-Star Game until 1933; he'd certainly have made several before then, and might have won MVP awards in the late 1920s if there had been any.
His .321 lifetime batting average is 51st all-time, and his .325 mark as a Cub ranks sixth among all Cubs who have had at least 1500 at-bats in a Cubs uniform.
Before Gabby Hartnett's "Homer in the Gloamin'" in 1938, this game was widely considered the greatest game in Cubs history. Today, it's been all but forgotten, so I've decided to bring it back to modern memory with this retro recap. You'll see why after the jump.
The 1966 season, like the 1962 season, was among the worst in team history. Both teams lost 103 games, still the club record and still the only 100-loss years in Cubs history.
And yet, toward the end of the 1966 season, if you looked very closely, you could see signs of the renaissance to come. Fergie Jenkins was installed in the rotation to stay at the end of August and made nine starts; the team went 6-3 in those games and Fergie posted a 2.13 ERA and 0.916 WHIP. Ken Holtzman, just 20 years old, spent the entire season in the rotation and pitched credibly, giving hope for the future.
This game is one that Holtzman started and won. I chose it, though, for another reason...
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